Gnomes

"Gnomes" is the seventeenth and penultimate episode of the second season of the American animated television series South Park. The 30th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 16, 1998. The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Pam Brady, and directed by Parker. This episode marks the first appearance of Tweek Tweak and his parents. In the episode, Harbucks plans to enter the South Park coffee market, posing a threat to the local coffee business owners, the Tweek Parents. Mr. Tweek, scheming to use the boys’ school report as a platform to fight Harbucks, convinces the boys to deliver their school report on the supposed threat corporatism poses to small businesses, moving the South Park community to take action against Harbucks. "Gnomes" satirizes the common complaint that large corporations lack consciences and drive seemingly wholesome smaller independent companies out of business. Paul Cantor described the episode as "the most fully developed defense of capitalism" ever produced by the show because of various themes in the episode. In the episode, smaller businesses are portrayed as being at least as greedy as their corporate counterparts, while their products are of lower quality compared to the products offered by large corporations. The episode is also known for the nonsensical business plan that the gnomes of the title devise, whose three steps consist of: Collect underpants ? Profit which later became a common meme used to mock poorly-thought-out business and political strategies.